Los Angeles.- A federal appeals court ruled this Friday that the suspension of asylum at the southern border issued by US President Donald Trump is illegal, which is a blow to the White House’s immigration policy.
The ruling refers to a proclamation (212 f) that allows the US Executive to summarily deport asylum seekers who cross the border without allowing them to seek protection.
The measure issued by Trump on the first day of his term cited an “invasion” as an argument to deny asylum protection to people at risk of persecution, thereby evading the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
Trump’s Position on Asylum at the Border
But a panel of the District Court of Appeals held that the president cannot evade laws passed by Congress that allow foreigners to seek asylum.
“Denying asylum in one fell swoop, without any information about the individuals affected, necessarily ignores any risk of persecution they face when forced to return to their place of origin,” the court wrote in an extensive opinion.
Inmigrantes pasan por el puerto de entrada de la frontera, en El Paso, Texas (Estados Unidos). EFE/César Contreras
The White House has highlighted that admissions of asylum seekers who have arrived at the border are almost nil since Trump assumed his second term in January 2025.
The ruling represents a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Immigrant Justice Center, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, and the Texas Civil Rights Project, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of several organizations that provide legal services to asylum seekers and a group of foreigners affected by the policy.
“This decision ends Trump’s inhumane policy”
“This decision ends Trump’s inhumane policy of sending people, including families with young children, back to terrible danger without even a hearing,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who filed the appeal, in a statement.
The lawyer emphasized that the court “made it clear” that the president does not have the unilateral power to nullify all asylum laws enacted by Congress.
Fotografía de un integrante del Ejército de los Estados Unidos, del área de Defensa Nacional, patrullando la frontera con México en el Área de Defensa Nacional, en Nuevo México (EE.UU.). EFE/Ángel Colmenares
For her part, Keren Zwick, litigation director at the National Immigrant Justice Center, said that following the ruling, she hopes the U.S. government “remembers its obligation” to consider protection requests for refugees and “recommits” to defending the fundamental rights of people seeking protection.
The court order will not take effect immediately. The White House is expected to appeal the ruling.
